The United Nations Association’s Southern New York Division, of which the Westchester Chapter is a part, responded to the Adopt-A-Future campaign launched by our Association to support the education of refugees’ children in Kenya’s two refugee camps during 2017. The Division made a commitment to support Gambela Primary School in the Kakuma Refugee Camp and pledged to raise $30,000 to be used for constructing a sustainable classroom to accommodate forty school children for ten years, purchase school uniforms and books for the children, and train special teachers. All funds raised are tax deductible and will be matched dollar for dollar.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), recognizing today’s unprecedented global refugee crisis, established the Adopt-A-Future Initiative with the aim of “preventing a lost generation by giving refugee children the education they need to build a better future.” The Kenyan government established one of its refugee camps at the town of Kakuma in 1991, initially to host 12,000 unaccompanied minors who had fled the war in Sudan and came walking from camps in neighboring Ethiopia. With continued war in South Sudan, the number of refugee arrivals increased beyond control to the current level of 185,000!

The black dot shows the Kakuma Refugee Camp.

The red dot in the northwest corner of Kenya, near Sudan, marks the location of the Kakuma Camp.

Our adopted school, Gambela Primary School in the Kakuma Refugee Camp, currently has an enrollment of 3,265 children. Although there are about 50,000 school-age children at Kakuma Camp, fewer than 25% reach high school and for girls the percentage is even lower. On average, there are 155 children per classroom and 165 children per teacher. Facilities are in poor condition, trained teachers are lacking, and some pupils have to walk up to six miles to school (and the same on the way back). In fact, some children are forced to learn under trees in the dust and scorching sun.

We need your help to support these disadvantaged refugee children before the December 2018 deadline set by theAssociation. Appeal letters were sent out to all Chapter members in 2017, and fund-raising events were held in September and December. As of February 2018, our Chapter and the Southern New York Division have raised $10,577.00. That is a good start, but there is plenty more to be done. We urgently need your help and hope that you will respond generously to appeals that will be sent out periodically during 2018. Our sincere thanks to all who have made donations, and we hope that you can continue to help us in the future.

Photos are from the Gambela Primary School at the Kakuma Refugee camp.